Summer Vegetable Risotto (In which I realize that if I’m going to blog about cooking, I ought to start measuring things. And taking more pictures.)

Serves two? I generally cook for one, but this had plenty of leftovers.

I know risotto kind of has this reputation as a pain in the ass. But it’s the perfect foggy cold day food, and takes just enough attention to really relax and calm me down. I really love the process of cooking. A foggy ride home got me in a risotto mood, and I figured it was a great way to test out the ridiculous smokiness of the turkey stock I made about a month ago. (Said stock was made with the carcass of a turkey smoked on a barbeque for a somewhat ridiculous amount of time.)



So, risotto. Honestly, it’s a bunch of steps, but not actually hard. Ingredient amounts were kind of guessed. It’s flexible, and simple and so comforting.

•4 cups stock (This is the only firm measurement, and only because I freeze stock in one cup amounts. My stock was ridiculously smoky. Like really ridiculous.)
•a few handfuls of Arborio rice (Really. It’s going to swell like mad, so use less than you might think.)
•5 market carrots (About one supermarket carrot, not really a summer vegetable, but they were languishing in the bottom of my vegetable drawer, and in surprisingly decent shape.)
• 2 gypsy peppers (a sweet variety my CSA grows. One bell pepper would work just fine.)
•2 small red onions (Really small. Like half a normal onion.)
•2 teeny summer squash (A zucchini would sub fine here.)
•2 roma tomatoes
•1 glop (a tablespoon?) tomato paste
•1 teaspoon thyme (Which I think ended up being irrelevant. You could probably leave it out with no issues.)
Salt
Pepper
Red pepper
Olive Oil
Butter


Put the stock in a pot and warm it up on the back of your stove. Add a glug or two of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter to a heavy bottomed pan. Medium heat. Chop the carrots. Toss them into the pan, and while they’re softening, chop the gypsy peppers. Toss them into the pan, and while they’re softening, chop the onions. Toss them into the pan, and while they’re softening, chop the squash. Toss them into the pan, and salt and pepper this vegetable mess. Thyme, too, if you’re using it. Cook for another few minutes, stirring every so often. You don’t really want things to brown, so much as just get kind of soft. Add another tablespoon of fat (butter or olive oil, it doesn’t really matter) and the rice. Cook for a few minutes, stirring every so often. OK, here comes the part that so many folks hate. Add a ladleful of stock, and stir. When that’s absorbed by the rice, add another ladleful of stock. Etc. Until the rice is soft and everything is a smooth starchy delicious mess. Maybe you’ll use all the stock, maybe not. Maybe you’ll need a bit more. Add the tomato paste and red pepper to taste. Chop the tomatoes, and add them to the pot. Cook for another minute, serve topped with chopped with parsley. Yum.

Variations:
-Fry up some little pieces of bacon or pancetta or other awesome cured pork, and use the rendered fat in place of the olive oil/butter.
-Swap for the vegetable you’ve got in excess. This is just what happened to be in my fridge.
-Use up to a cup of wine in place of the stock.
-I just noticed the huge bunches of basil on my dining table. That’d be good in this, I bet.
-Stir in some grated parmesan cheese at the end of cooking.

This turned out to be the perfect summer dinner*. Warm and filling, but packed with summer produce. Awesome, all around. And I have enough left over to do a few risotto cakes tomorrow. Win.

Oh, about that turkey stock? Yup, extremely smokey. To the point where even if I'm going to make something where I want the smokey flavor, I probably ought to dilute it with plain chicken stock. Although I bet it'd make killer split pea soup.

*Those of you not from San Francisco: There’s a famous quote, misattributed to Mark Twain,“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” It is generally NOT WARM in San Francisco during the summer, but we still get all the awesome summer produce from the Central Valley.